Thanks. In playtesting it rarely gets below 200 cards and if it ever does, ive got a few alternate win conditions, however Psychic Spiral could be fun anyway because of the potential for milling the opponent. Perhaps as a 1 of.

Why don't you play some game changing bombs like Drogskol Reaver ?

I was considering Stormtide Leviathan as a bomb and practically a constant Fog ...

Ah, Battle of Wits. Congrats on making a strong deck using this shell. However, I think there is some room for improvement. To start, you need to have a playset of Elixir of Immortality . I saw a guy who played BoW at FNM play a milling deck first round. The deck was able to drop him below 200 cards, which resulted in the most horrifying game of attrition ever to grace Magic. This deck also could desperately use Lingering Souls . It can serve as stalling and aggression as well. I would also revamp your mana base, either adding more red mana to gain access to cards like Mizzium Mortars , Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius , Faithless Looting , and Mercurial Chemister or adding green mana instead, to add cards like Thragtusk + Restoration Angel , Vraska the Unseen , the Garruks, and Farseek . Actually, I would run all five colors. You do have the space :).

I would also play a host of other win conditions like Entreat the Angels and other X mana spells. I also would drop all the subpar counterspells and draw spells (e.g. Inspiration, Lost in the Mist) for better cards of that variety. Snapcasters and Sugurs of Bolas are never bad in this sort of a deck either.

In conclusion, I think you should up your creatures and lower your reliance on BoW by adding other powerful cards to win with (Entreat the Angels should be top of the list). Making a 5-Color deck gives you access to plenty of strong spells. Add more planesawlkers that garner card advantage like Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Jace, Architect of Thought . You should add more creatures like Snappy and Augur as well.

I hope this helps! Good luck with BoW!

Kaires

Thanks, it has been a long journey and yes needs heaps of work lol ;-)

Yeah, im still not sure about Elixir of Immortality /Psychic Spiral although maybe as a 1 of or a sideboard. The thing is that 1 there are no mill decks in my meta and 2 I have a few alternate win conditions anyway. I could picture how hilarious the game you described would be though.

So my philosophy with these kind of decks is that although it would be a better deck if I took some of the tutor out and put in some bombs in, (niv/angels/reaver...) the point is the challenge of using the Battle of Wits win condition. Obviously it would be a more competitive as a 60 card control deck with bombs but the whole fun is in trying to win with the Battle of Wits . Hence the alternate win conditions are things that double as removal.

I was originally running green and red and the deck focused more on ramp and fog effects. It didnt work too well so I tried cutting the red and concentrating on the fogs it was still sloppy (it was trying to do too much) so I tried to cut the green and add the red and it worked a little better but was still inconsistent. Now the only reason the red was in there was because of the valuable red board wipes. So I looked for all the more obscure mass control and cut the red and it is more consistent than ever. I still have one mountain in there (which I can tutor) only so I can keep Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker because he is a boss. The lands are still a little inconsistent with 3 colours but that will get a little better when gatecrash gets released.

I will have a look at alternatives to Inspiration and Lost in the Mist , I kind of lined up all the counterspells in standard atm and chose my 5 favorites (and the same with draw spells, board wipes etc). I will go back though and double check that they are as good as they can be.

Thanks again for the thoughts, Ill keep trying to sharpen it up, keep letting me know what you think :-)

How do you win? The time it takes to get out Battle of Wits seems too much. Its a 1 in 50 pulll....

Tutors all day lol

but wouldn't you have to put back cards into your deck?

Yeah, I can see what you are saying. I think you should add Jace 4.0 and Tamiyo in place of Inspiration and Divination. They will generate much more card advantage for you. In terms of counterspells, I would just suggest Syncopate. It's not a hard counterspell, but it does some good work. Also, good choice keeping red for Bolas. He is absolutely hilarious.

@ TrumpetsforKings, not quite sure what your asking. To start with, there is a 1/60 chance of drawing a Battle of Wits hence by the time turn 4 comes along (when you can pay its mana cost) you have drawn 10-11 cards (assuming you havnt used a draw spell). Therefore 11/60 = 18.3% and the odds get a little higher than that because you have drawn a few cards ( I wont go into that here). So you have about a 1/5 or 20% chance of having it in your opening hand or drawing it by the time you could theoretically play it (obviously the deck will try to tutor it out if you dont have it as strateupjee said). Then, since Battle of Wits requires 200 cards in your deck and the deck has 240, odds are you will not have drawn 40 cards by the time you are trying to win with BOW. Hope that answers it :-)

@ Kaires, yeah I love bolas, such a fun win con and a ridiculous 240 card deck calls for ridiculous win conditions lol. I like Tamyo better than new jace, I might see how she goes. I have been skeptical about Syncopate but one of my friends likes it and he is a much more experienced control player than myself, so I guess the two of you have talked me into it, Ill give it a playest ;-), thanks.

You can't play BOW turn 4...

sorry, turn 5 therefore 12/60= 20% ;-)